The Counter Fremont
| Address: | 39350 Paseo Padre Pkwy, Fremont, CA 94538, USA |
| Phone: | +1 510-796-8800 |
| Site: | thecounterburger.com |
| Rating: | 4.2 |
| Working: | 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–11PM 11AM–11PM 11:30AM–9:30PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 7
ER
Eric Lai
Walked in, and we were greeted and seated right away. The waitress came around shortly after--a little "in your face"--to take our drink and appetizer orders; two cokes and an order of sweet potato fries and shoe string fries. We received the drinks quickly, and about five minutes later came the fries. I picked up a sweet potato fry and realized it was a bit cold, unlike the shoe string fry which was hot and crunchy and delish. So I flagged down the waitress and she promptly took the fries back to the kitchen and waited there (maybe 2-3 minutes) as they either refried them, microwaved them, or just gave us a new plate full. In the meantime, I worked on my custom burger. Being vegan, its tough sometimes to find places where we can dine out (unless we want salads). We had done a little bit of research and were happy to find the counter offered a vegan burger. So, from the back of the menu, I grabbed one of the build your own burger forms and went to town filling in bubbles with the provided pencil. I went with the 1/3 lbs. veggie patty, with grilled onions, fresh jalapeños, ripe tomatoes, fire roasted red peppers, and vegan cheese on an ciabatta bun. Also, chose 3 sauces, that come on the side, for 75 cents. They were the red relish, hickory barbecue, and chipotle salsa. While the order was being placed, I took the time to look about the establishment. It has a sportsbar vibe to it. Its well-lit, and seems to have a nice bar selection. Our burgers arrived, and were presented nicely on the plate. I picked up my good sized burger and drizzled a little sauce on it before taking each bite. They were nothing spectacular, but I found the hickory BBQ to be my favorite. As for the burger itself, it was nicely crafted with the toppings I chose used sparingly. It wasnt as hot as I would have expected coming straight from the kitchen, but it was by no means cold; just on the high side of warm. Never the less, it was satisfactory. Somewhere in the middle of our meal, the waitress came by and refilled our drinks without us having to flag her down (thats always nice). We finished our meals and asked for the check. Two of us, 36 bucks... That seems about going rate. All in all, my experience was positive. As with any restaurant, experiences with the wait staff will fluctuate. So this place is definitely worth a second, and maybe a third visit.
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Jeremy Erickson
Food: 5/5 Service: 1/5 Management: 2/5 Went to the Counter tonight with a group of 8. First off, the food was delicious. Like other custom burger places, there are lots of options, and while you pay for them, they taste pretty darn good. Everyone in our party was very happy with the food. The service on the other hand, was a continuous disaster. Our server started off with a story about how he accidentally walked on glass over the weekend (just the image we wanted before we ordered food, thanks), then proceeded to pass out waters to 6 of us, only. We asked about 3-4 times for the last two waters and he kept saying they were out of cups (even 30 minutes after the first time we asked). Next, he mixed up everyones orders (sauces were on the wrong plates, dishes were universally served to the wrong people), the most egregious of which was a medium-well cook that was delivered *rare*. When we asked it to be re-cooked, the manager came out and personally took care of it (great!), saying it would be about 5-7 minutes. 15 minutes later, still no replacement burger. The rest of us waiting for the burger to be redelivered ended up eating cold hamburgers. Just before the burger was to be delivered, our original server stopped by to ask if we were finished and would we like some boxes because nobody had finished their meal (it had been that long - we were all waiting with half-eaten means while the burger was recooked). When the manager finally brought the replacement burger out, he first apologized for the delay, but then gave us a short monologue about how they had made over 5000 burgers that day and so really one mistake wasnt all that bad. Great. Thanks. I totally understand that justification when an employee is explaining the mistake to the manager, but for the manager to be explaining it to the customer is particularly unprofessional. When we were finally ready to leave, there were two errors on the bill that we had to get corrected (one was a kids milk - huh? No kids in our party). Our server was still clueless. We ended up having a server from a different section help us at the end.
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Mihir Meghani
The Counter is a chain that offers many options for burgers, but also has other items likes shakes, a variety of fries, onion rings & salads. What I like is that it has a vegetarian burger option & also has eggless bread, though the bread breaks up quite easily, making it challenging to eat the burger. The range of toppings you can put on your sandwich is huge, with many items you would never purchase if making something at home, or find at other burger joints. The possibilities are essentially limitless so you can enjoy trying different combinations or keep your burger traditional and simple. Service can be slow & the wait long when they are busy. Get The Counter card to accumulate points for dining. The nutella & pretzel shake is great.
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Karen V Chin
Fun place to create-your-own burger. Indoor and outdoor seating (plenty of umbrellas or heat lamps depending what time of day you go). Service is friendly and fast. I like the fact there is an ample amount of free toppings (lettuces, perfectly cooked hard boiled egg, pineapple to name just a few), cheeses (choose one), sauces (choose one), salsas, bun choices, meats or non meats (in different amounts at different prices). Only negatives - have to pay extra for mushrooms, avocado and grilled onions. Parking can be tough depending on the day and time you go because The Counter is at a very busy strip mall - Galaxy Plaza.
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Ivan Yudhi
This place have amazing burger. I like the idea that you can design your own burger, from the meat, bun, toppings, and sauce. I definitely have fun doing it and love the results. Well, most of the time anyway ;) Most of the condiments are free and you can get as many as you want. It will tell you how much money you need to add for certain items, so it definitely helps if you have certain budgets. They also have patties that are not really common such as bison burger and crab cake. Delicious. I like to order online, create my burger, then pick it up. So easy and convenient.
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suzan Bobette
I eat at The Counter Fremont often. I love the create-your-own burgers. The beef is natural and really great. They have fantastic gluten-free burger buns!!! Along with a binder to choose other gluten-free items off the menu. You can also choose to get your burger on mixed greens, which is really good, but its hard to turn down the gluten-free bun. The staff here has always been great, some of them really impressive. The bartenders have been awesome consistently. The milk shakes are incredible!!! I love this place!
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B Breuil
High-end burgers and a full bar--brilliant combo! Ample indoor seating and lots of outdoor seating with enough gas firepits to make it doable in winter--a dozen people were laughing it up out there on a 52 degree night! Another benefit if a full bar: less sensitivity to cold! There must be 50 different choices of meat, bun, toppings, dressings, etc. (including some less common things like a pretzel bun, fried egg topping, bison meat, etc.).
